Changes in oral antimicrobial prescribing in pediatric otorhinolaryngology departments at a local primary emergency medical center

Abstract

Introduction

In 2016, the Japanese government introduced the National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to reduce the number of antimicrobial prescriptions. Although antimicrobial agents tend to be prescribed more frequently for children in primary medical emergency centers, reports are lacking on prescription trends in otorhinolaryngology departments.

Method

This single-center descriptive epidemiology study retrospectively investigated oral antimicrobial prescriptions for patients aged 15 years or younger who visited the department of otorhinolaryngology at the Himeji City Emergency Medical Center in 2015–2019. We then calculated the total antimicrobial prescription rate and the number of each antimicrobial prescription per 1,000 patients.

Result

The total antimicrobial prescription rate remained around 60％, and the number of prescriptions per 1,000 patients decreased from 442 to 218 and 59.7 to 4.7 for third-generation cephalosporins and carbapenems, respectively, whereas it increased from 128 to 386 for amoxicillin.

Conclusion

We observed a change in prescription trends of third-generation cephalosporins, carbapenems, and amoxicillin, suggesting the possibility of the effectiveness of the guidelines and action plan developed to tackle AMR. We plan to continue a prospective survey in collaboration with otorhinolaryngologists and pediatricians.